Arturia announces KeyLab 49 & 61 are back in black as limited-edition bundles

Arturia has announced that its award-winning KeyLab 49 and KeyLab 61 MIDI controller keyboards are not only back in black but better value than ever as compelling KeyLab 49 Black Edition and KeyLab 61 Black Edition bundles.

Arturia’s clever KeyLab concept of creating the ultimate hybrid synthesizer by perfectly pairing a high-quality MIDI controller keyboard — available in various sizes to musically meet the studio or onstage demands of any amateur or professional player — with its award-winning Analog Lab software solution — serving up an astonishingly inspirational collection of classic synth sounds from the company’s classy vintage analogue recreations with which it initially made its name — first turned the musician’s world upside down when launched at Musikmesse 2013 in Frankfurt, Germany. Sales success soon followed with thousands of seriously satisfied KeyLab users turning their musical dreams into reality throughout the world.

“We dare to create original and different instruments, imagine new experiences, and reinvent products.” Proof positive of this excerpt from Arturia’s admirable online raison d’être (http://www.arturia.com/company/aboutus), the 49-note namesake KeyLab 49 Black Edition and its KeyLab 61 Black Edition bigger brother take that KeyLab concept several (software) steps further by bundling limited-edition black versions of those award-winning white KeyLab 49 and KeyLab 61 MIDI controller keyboards that have hitherto dazzled the musical world with a four-course software selection fit for sound design diehards and piano-driven performers alike…

Alongside Arturia’s aforesaid Analog Lab, laden with 6,000 plus-presets by internationally-renowned sound designers, KeyLab 49 Black Edition and KeyLab 61 Black Edition each come complete with two Analog Classics: Prophet-V, Arturia’s authentic software reincarnation of the Prophet 5 and Prophet VS Digital Synthesizer, respectively the first (analogue) and last (digital) polysynths made by the trailblazing Californian creator, Sequential Circuits® — although, Arturia being Arturia, the software succeeds in taking those two classic hardware synths that helped define the distinctive sounds of so many classic bands to another level by blending both innovative instruments into one super-synth, the likes of which has never before been seen, thanks to its imaginative Hybrid mode; meanwhile, Solina V brings back the still-sought after sounds of the Seventies-vintage Solina String Ensemble as an authentic-sounding software recreation of one of the era’s sonically-defining string machines, characterised by the lush string sounds it produced, plus its renowned sound-thickening Ensemble effect to which it owes its name.

Not wishing to leave pianists out in the dark, the KeyLab 49 Black Edition and KeyLab 61 Black Edition bundles also add Grand Piano Model D from fellow French developer UVI into the highly musical mix. This third-party sampled-based virtual instrument par excellence delivers the sought-after sound of the superlative Steinway Model D concert grand piano with all the warmth, expressiveness, and detail of the real thing, thanks to deep multi-sampling, precision mastering, and advanced scripting — surely the perfect acoustic-sounding performance partner to compliment Arturia’s already expansive electronic sound palette packaged with KeyLab 49 Black Edition and KeyLab 61 Black Edition, and surely more than enough to tempt musicians to turn to the ‘dark side’ of the KeyLab concept to help realise their musical dreams?